An electrophoresis apparatus in which ionic substances are separated in an aqueous solution by using such separating carriers as a sheet of paper, a cellulose acetate film starch gel, polyacrylamide gel or the like is widely used as means for separating proteins, enzymes, or the like.
One such slab gel electrophoresis apparatus, can separate a plurality of samples by using a single slab gel and has excellent separating performance.
This type of electrophoresis apparatus is widely used. In this apparatus, a polyacrylamide monomer is polymerized in a gap formed between two glass plates on stainless slab plates (slab gel forming plates) to form slab gel, and the separation of the samples is performed according to a predetermined procedure while holding the gel between the slab gel forming plates.
Such a procedure is done because the mechanical strength of the polyacrylamide gel slab formed in the gap between the slab gel forming plates is low, so that it is difficult to take out the slab gel from between the slab gel to separate the samples. However, unless the naked slab gel is used it is impossible to color the slab gel for confirming a separated state, so it is necessary to take out the slab gel from between the slab gel forming plates for coloring.
When a plurality of slab gels are preformed and it is desired to take one out for practical use, it is necessary to prepare a number of slab forming plates to form and store a number of slab gels in the gaps between the slab gel forming plates. However, the vessel utilized to store the slab gel is complicated in construction, expensive and uneconomical.
On the other hand, a slab reinforced by fibers of nonwoven polyester cloth as a reinforcing core not only has excellent mechanical strength but also has high dimensional stability so that it is possible to take the slab gel out from between two slab gel forming plates. The slab gel can be stored and the naked slab gel used for a separation operation. Consequently, it is not necessary to prepare a plurality of vessels for storing slab gels so that it is now possible to perform and store a plurality of slab gels. In addition, a slab gel reinforced with fibers as described above can be rinsed with purified water during storage and can be desalted before an actual separation operation by passing electric current through the slab gel, thus providing a novel method of use of the slab gel not considered in the past.
A slab gel reinforced with the fibers of nonwoven cloth described above can be manufactured by disposing in parallel two slab gel forming plates with a spacer interposed therebetween, pouring a polyacrylamide monomer solution into the gap between the slab gel forming plates together with a nonwoven cloth and then polymerizing the monomer solution.
With this method, however, air bubbles are entrained in the monomer solution, and oxygen in the air bubbles can prevent a polymerization reaction so that a porous slab gel is formed not suitable for separating samples. To prevent this disadvantage, it is necessary to prewet the nonwoven cloth with the polyacrylamide monomer solution. To this end the nonwoven cloth must be carefully bonded to the slab gel forming plates to prevent entraining air bubbles, which are troublesome and cause low productivity.